sales taxes and why you should be paying it. states lose $2 billion a year from uncollected tax from web users. the supreme court decided yesterday not to get involved in appeals from amazon.com and overstock.com. the court let ruling from internet retailers to collect sales taxes even if they have no physical presence in the state. do you follow me? the issue effectively ends tax-free online shopping for lots of people. brick and mortar people say they are at a disadvantage when they have to collect taxes and online do not. it's different from state-to-state and it's just been a real mess there but supreme court is not going to weigh in on this. i want to give you a quick peek at the markets. dow and the major markets all fell after the black friday results showed that consumers spent less than last year. gold stock fell as well. concerns about the fed withdrawing -- using a big pull-back in gold this year. the ten-year treasury climbed again. it means higher mortgage rates likely and higher rates for car loans and the like. kr